See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception

Madeline Schwartzman Black Dog Publishing

Madeline Schwartzman, American architect and professor, has captured the present in this text. Exploring the relationship between the body, design and technology, the book is perplexing and thought-provoking.

Taking the different functions and diverse conceptual patterns of sensory projects into account, Seeing Yourself Sensing is organised into five easy-to-navigate sections.

Surveying the work of both established and upcoming artists – including internet sensation Daito Manabe whose innovative experiments in synching up the face to music via electrical stimulation have gone viral on the web, Olafur Eliasson’s interior microclimate, The Weather Project (2003), installed in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern and Erik Hobijn’s Delusions of Self-Immolation (1993) which allows one to burn and survive, this book offers a wide commentary on experimentation in art and design. A bizarre and, at times, disturbing read, this is a relevant text for anyone with an interest in design, art and technology.

Florence Wright

Aesthetica Magazine

This article was originally published in Issue 42 of Aesthetica Magazine.